While Mel Kiper Jr.’s mock draft that dropped this morning had the Pittsburgh Steelers addressing their hole at wide receiver, NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah has the Steelers going with an offensive tackle in Oklahoma’s Tyler Guyton. Guyton played on the right side due to having a lefty quarterback, so he could be a seamless fit at right tackle while the Steelers move Broderick Jones back to his natural left tackle spot.
“The Steelers have undergone a complete makeover at quarterback, but they still need an upgrade at tackle to play opposite last year’s first-round pick, Broderick Jones,” Jeremiah wrote for NFL.com.
The Steelers have Russell Wilson penciled in as their starting quarterback this season, and Wilson was sacked 55 times in 2022 and 45 times in 2023. It’s no surprise that the last two seasons have been widely regarded as the worst two of his career, and keeping Wilson upright is going to be important for the Steelers in 2024.
In this mock, the Steelers pass on three names they’ve frequently been linked to at No. 20 in OT Amarius Mims, C Graham Barton and C Jackson Powers-Johnson. Powers-Johnson went No. 24 to the Dallas Cowboys, while Barton went No. 21 to the Miami Dolphins with Mims slotting in at No. 25 to the Green Bay Packers.
Jeremiah’s mock saw a few trades, including the Minnesota Vikings moving up to No. 4 to grab Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy and the New York Jets moving to No. 5 to take Marvin Harrison Jr. and pair him with Garrett Wilson for Aaron Rodgers next season.
In Guyton, the Steelers would be getting a 6-8, 322-pound specimen with 34 1/8-inch arms. He played in 20 games for Oklahoma over the past two seasons after beginning his career at TCU, and he had 1,011 snaps at right tackle over the past two seasons. Omar Khan said that Jones will eventually move back to left tackle, and that could happen as soon as next season if the Steelers do indeed select Guyton.
The Steelers still have a number of holes to fill, and at this point, you can’t go wrong connecting them to any tackle, center, wide receiver or cornerback in the first round. They still have a month to try and look to patch or fix some of their current holes as they try to compete for a Super Bowl with Russell Wilson under center, but as of now, the team still needs some work. It’s already been a whirlwind first week of free agency and expect the Steelers to stay active ahead of the draft.
